Lotus Thompson: Silent Film Star

It was the night of the Artists’ Ball.

A jazz fantasy unfolds within the grand walls of Sydney Town Hall, inspired by the extravagant and uninhibited artists’ balls of London, Berlin, and Paris.

The venue becomes a theatrical spectacle. Students, artists, and bohemian revellers gather in fancy dress costume to celebrate art, music, and to make merry.

The air is thick with excitement. 

Sydney’s avant-garde elite mingle under the watchful eyes of large painted birds. The room is a whirlwind of colour and movement. Towering Aboriginal figures adorn the walls. The decor—a striking fusion of primitive and modern Australiana—sets the stage for an unforgettable evening.

A hush ripples through the crowd as a young woman, draped in animal skins, descends the banksia– covered staircase. She is wearing the fur costume from her latest film, Prehistoric Hayseeds, directed by Frank Beaumont Smith.

She moves gracefully past enormous pillars of bark – each step draws the gaze of onlookers.

The night pulses on, filled with laughter, dance, and way too much alcohol. In just one moment in time, a young woman’s entire life trajectory changes. Amid the revelry, an eager hand tugs at the tails of Lotus’ fur costume. 

In an instant, the garment falls away, leaving young actress, Lotus Thompson, completely and entirely exposed.

A collective gasp. A moment of stunned silence, then an eruption of shocked laughter and scandalised whispers. Nobody will forget this.

The headline practically writes itself.

The next day, the papers scream: ‘Lotus in Bear Skin, in Bare Skin.’ Two years later, Lotus reflected on the moment, wryly remarking, ‘Bare skin and legs and legs and legs. There was no escape.’ 

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Beaumont Smith, known as ‘one take Beau’, could write, cast, produce, direct, and screen a film in record time of just under six weeks. He was a journalist, publicist, theatrical showman, theatre and film producer, activist, director, writer, and film exhibitor. Smith uses the shock of the new and publicity to bolster film sales.

Midweek, Eddy Avenue, Central Railway Station, Sydney. February 1923.

‘Along a sunny road, ordinary people are going about their business when a motor car stops, and out steps a ragged bunch of Stone Age Survivors. Wearing the skins of wild animals, where they were covered at all, the cavemen and women create a seething mass of excitement as they interact with the public.’

Smith was banned from certain areas at the time as he chose to film in places without consultation. During filming, the cast visited the Sydney Town Hall, Artists’ Ball, but they were refused permission and had to film those scenes in a studio.

‘Their costumes will be the skins of assorted animals, and their weapons, spears, and clubs, plus the disarming smile of one Stone Age flapper.’

‘Savages in Sydney’

“The pre-historic people were tastefully draped in skins and wore even less clothes than Coogee flappers…They gaped at the railway clock and registered bewilderment while the camera man turned the handle in the background…It was only a scene in the picture, “Pre-historic Hayseeds.”

Somehow, Beaumont Smith manages to make a film and manage publicity and promotion for the film, at the same time.

Publicity for the much-awaited ‘Prehistoric Hayseeds’ comedy asks:

‘Can you imagine these funny creatures of a dim, dark age breaking into modern jazz society?

You should see the fun when these hayseeds walk down the streets of Sydney just clothed in the skins of animals and displaying a large expanse of bare limb.’

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The papers nickname Lotus a ‘Cave flapper,’ on location at Port Hacking, where she was photographed with boxer, Roy Wilson, between scenes.

‘Animal skins may be picturesque but I’m sure there couldn’t have been any sandflies when people used to wear them. They leave too much room for bites.’

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Meanwhile, Lotus’ status was rising as a film personality. She is Beaumont Smith’s golden ticket. He makes great use of this draw-card.

It is possible that the incident was a calculated publicity stunt. A ploy to draw attention to Smith’s Hayseeds comedies. What we don’t know – was Lotus complicit in the spectacle or was she an unwitting victim? 

An article from Picture Play Magazine in America offered this explanation:

‘Lotus had left Australia because stage producers had always sent for her. They called when there was something to do which required a display of pretty limbs. She arrived in Hollywood with the determination that no studio should know anything about her former experience…’

The film industry in Australia, meanwhile, was dying and professional actors and film-makers were aware that they would be forced to work overseas if they wished to work in the industry.

“When the flapper murmurs that her great ambition is to be a picture star, she foresees the delirious joy of acting endlessly before the camera. In Australian pictures, however, she might become a star, and still find the amount of work very limited. Local productions are so few that the players always have some other business besides their movie acting.”

This illustration from the night of the ball depicts her with an expression of disdain. It is my view that this humiliating episode only deepened her resolve to leave Australia.

The cast of the Prehistoric Hayseeds in Sydney, 1923

“The Secret Was Out. After the Acid Exploit.” The Pittsburgh Press, Pennsylvania, 1 Mar. 1925, p.105.  https://newspapers.com/image150111984; “Legs a Specialty.” Picture Play Magazine, Mar. to Aug. 1928; https://archive.org/stream/pictureplaymagaz28unse/pictureplaymagaz28unse_djvu.txt; Stage and Screen. The Daily News, Perth, 22 Feb. 1923, p. 6. https://nla.gov.au/nla.gov.au/nla.news-page78057423; “Close-Ups”, The Sun, 26 October 1923, p. 7. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222670268; https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/24458630; https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/222671454/24459240;